As part of its capacity building initiatives and a bid to address the welfare of children between the ages of 0 to 3, the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious, Ghana (CMSR-G), has entered into partnership with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) with funding from the Conrad Hilton Foundation.
The project which is dubbed SCORE ECD Strengthening the Capacity of Religious Women in Early Childhood Development trains Religious Sisters who in turn train other caregivers to key practices of quality child care and development including promotion of maternal mental health.
Sharing her achievements with Newswtachgh.com after serving for four years as President of CMSR-G, Sr. Mercy Boateng, SSL, said the project is also to strengthen Sisters’ organisational sustainability and their capacities in networking and advocacy.
“So far, seven Women Congregations are carrying out this project at the Northern Region of Ghana, which the Conference hopes to replicate in other regions,” she stated.
According to her, “this project aims to address the situation where many children in the country fail to reach their full potential due to malnutrition, domestic violence, family stress, depression among care givers and lack of basic health.”
The main beneficiaries are children from disadvantaged communities who are poor and malnourished.
“The Catholic Relief Services (CRS) staff works hand in hand with the Sisters through training, mentorship and accompaniment,” Sr. Boateng said, adding, “Notable of the project success is the engagement of fathers in Child care and women’s awareness of their moods and reducing their stress to have improved mother baby interaction.”
She noted that together with community health volunteers, pregnant and lactating mothers and other early childhood caregivers understand the importance of responsive feeding, safety and security, positive parenting, play based stimulation and early learning opportunities.
“Another project that the Conference has begun is a Multi-congregational skill Training Initiative to empower three hundred youth aged between 15-30 years to become self-sufficient,” she hinted.
Sr. Boateng who served as President of CMSR-G for four years told newswatchgh.com that they began their leadership role in October 2019 with an Institutional Capacity Building with an in-depth organisational diagnosis from multiple stakeholders perspective to assess the existing capacity needs of the conference and two local indigenous congregations namely Sisters of Mary Immaculate (SMI) and Handmaids of Divine Redeemer (HDR).
According to her, the Study was conducted with the help of Advicewise Consulting Limited, initiated by African Sisters Education Collaborative (ASEC) at the invitation of the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious Ghana to strengthen and develop the internal systems and structures that will improve the capacity and enhance the vitality of the conference to enable them fulfill their mission through their various ministries.
The Conference, she noted, currently has a five-year strategic and implementation plan to give it a focus and direction and a website and proper financial systems has been installed with the Construction of a permanent Secretariat and Youth Empowerment Center is underway at Elmina.
She pointed out that a Secretariat headed by a full time Executive Secretary to run the day to day activities of the Conference has been put in place and a comprehensive constitution to respond to the environmental change now awaits final approval from the Vatican.
“With proper legal documentation and proper structures, the Conference could receive large scale grants to carry out a number of her projects,” she said, stating “We received grants from Conrad Hilton Foundation during the COVID-19 pandemic to enable us respond to our most vulnerable communities in Ghana.”
He explained that “we carried out a research related to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on member congregations; we were able to increase vaccine access in vulnerable communities throughout Ghana.”
Sr. Boateng stated that training interventions were also given to two indigenous Congregations to enable them improve on governance, planning, financial and human resource, data base management systems to enable them fulfill their mission through their various ministries.
She thanked the Conrad Hilton Foundation and other partners of the Conference for their generosity and support which has enabled them come thus far.
